


Stupid

by jeffgangfan



Series: Tumblr prompts [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: I just want to hurt Percy, M/M, a little angst won't hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-03-04 18:10:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3079325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeffgangfan/pseuds/jeffgangfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a great morning. Nico jogged by Table 3 and saw Percy did some pen-tapping. Percy was glad he hasn't done anything stupid. Yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stupid

“You do pen-tapping??” asked Nico, somewhat surprised.

“Well, yes. I have a pen with me all the time.” Percy grinned, spinning Riptide in its (obviously) pen form.

It was an unusual morning as Jason didn’t show up at his table so Percy had to sit alone. The two usually had breakfast early because Jason was busy as hell and Percy had to train new campers in sword fighting. Percy got carried away a little with his pen-tapping (he took this up to distract himself from Tartarus) when Nico suddenly showed up.

Said boy rolled his eyes “You think you’re funny but you’re not.” He licked his lips “Show me what you can do.”

Percy tried to be playful but the wide grin on his face didn’t help “Only if you sing along.”

“Try to find the right song then.” Nico said, sat down right next to him.

Percy was surprised at how well things were going on. He had managed not to do something stupid or clumsy by now. Or maybe he didn’t just do stuffs wrong, he just assumed that whatever he did in front of Nico was stupid.

Weird, wasn’t it. Ever since Nico told him he had a crush on him, Percy thought about it a lot and decided to be a better friend to Nico, not to make it up for him because he know damn sure he couldn’t. The son of Poseidon wanted to get to know the obsidian-eyed boy. Percy never wanted to misunderstand him again.  
However, he found himself growing more affectionate around Nico, which led to his recent state of nervousness. Percy couldn’t quite put his finger on the reason but he suspected that-

“I have a thing for you.”

Nico stopped singing along to the beats and looked at Percy like a deer caught in headlights, eyes wide and mouth agape. Percy clumsily dropped his pen and wanted to bang his head against the nearest wall.

“Can you repeat that?”

Percy swallowed and Riptide was not there for him to fidget with so he stared at Nico, trying to distract himself a little from his disgusting word vomit.

Fine, he kinda hoped to be able to avoid answering.

Nico was in his regular running outfit which was a black tank top and grey sweatpants, earphones tugged in his left pocket with the black Ipod he started to carry around after the War. The son of Hades tied his long, soft hair in a pony-tail (how did Percy know he had soft hair? He once asked Nico to touch it. That pathetic). The dark-eyed looked at him patiently, itching to know the answer.

Percy knew it was unfair for Nico. The son of Poseidon wasn’t even sure about his own feelings but he knew there was something. But what if that something was not enough? Nico was over him, he shouldn’t tie the Italian down any longer.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

“I didn’t just say that. Please forget it.”

And Percy ran. Away from Nico. Now he understood how it must have felt like for the son of Hades to run from emotions he did not have the explanation for.

In the dining pavilion stood the dark-eyed boy who slowly dug out feelings that should have stayed dead in their grave.


	2. I'll wait for you no matter how long you take

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Making an attempt to avoid Nico was much harder although they didn't see each other so often too become inseparable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the beta of dear Lei

For the next two months, Percy made a great effort to avoid Nico at all cost. He no longer had breakfast early with Jason and also asked a girl the Hecate cabin to train the new campers. Chiron agreed and after seeing that girl take down two bulky guys, Percy felt alleviated enough to go help in his father’s realm. Although his stepmother disliked him, Percy did manage not to get on her nerves as he came back to Camp every evening. The son of Poseidon didn’t even talk to his friends as much as before since he left for the sea early in the morning and always sneaked dinner into his cabin. He spent time reading all the books that were written by mortal authors, partly desired to find a way to escape the tedious reality. Honestly, anything would do.

Friends came to visit him at first because they were worried, of course. But then they found out that he was completely fine; so IMs from Annabeth lessened, Leo didn’t stop for his cabin anymore, and Piper must have found it more and more awkward to visit him. Still, she left a blueberry muffin in front of Cabin 3 every supper. Jason was busy as hell (too many shrines to build) and so was Frank with his wedding.

Although they hadn’t seen each other too much to become inseparable before he accidentally word-vomited, Percy found it much more difficult when he actually made the effort to avoid Nico. Every night he made a silent prayer to Aphrodite so that she would bless him with the courage to pretend nothing had happened. He wished to be able to hang out with Nico again, go to the library, and try to defeat Hazel in their sketch contests. Percy sucked at drawing but he had his ways with colors.

Percy wanted to stop hiding.

Never in his wildest dreams did he expect Nico to be the one to act as if nothing had happened that morning. Yet he did. Nico just showed up at three (freaking) a.m. and yanked the cozy blanket out of Percy.

“What the-“

“Perseus, hear me clear and hear me well. You will not go to your father’s palace anymore! Instead, you’re gonna hang out with me tomorrow.”

“Nico!? I thought you were mad at me?” Percy asked in disbelief, pulling the sheets up to cover his shirtless top from the cold.

“I don’t know what you’re whining about! Tomorrow we have to finish the last sketches and we can’t waste more time!”

“But I have to help my father!”

“Well, I talked to your father on IM. He told me he wanted you to have a break so I agreed to help fulfilling his wish.”

After that, they hang out like they had before. Percy promised to himself that he would never have any slip-ups with Nico. He would just hide how he felt, like with Annabeth before the Battle of Labyrinth. 

Nico seemed to be comfortable around him, which was good and Percy couldn’t be more thankful for the fact that Nico might have forgotten completely about what happened. However, Percy wondered if that made him gradually less careful.

His days of concealment ended one night when they sat next to each other at the Campfire. Percy told himself it would be a perfect setting with the warm light from the fire, them sitting silently next to each other. Other campers had gone back to their cabins for the horror movie marathons and Percy didn’t _do_ horror. When you come back from Tartarus, you don’t do horror.

It was weird, they had been hanging out with each other but that night, Percy couldn’t think of a topic to talk to with Nico. They sat in awkward silence, but Percy actually enjoyed it. He just appreciated how he could just spend time sitting with Nico and had no chance of word-vomiting again.

“So...Hazel saw our sketches today.”

“What did she say?” Percy asked and handed Nico a piece of marshmallow.

“She admitted defeat.” Nico shrugged then hummed when he took the first bite. The son of Poseidon had to stifle a laugh. “How’s she?” Percy asked.

“She’s fine. Worried about you knowing that you’ve been missing for almost two months ago.”

"Missing?”

“Yeah, we barely even saw you. What have you been doing other than helping your father?”

“I was busy reading.” Percy shrugged and indulged himself with another piece of marshmallow before replying. He expected Nico to show some mock surprise but the son of Hades raised his eyebrow, interested.

“I thought you were taking a break from college?”

"Yeah, I dig fictions. Want to know what the mortals have in mind.”

“I figure you listen to audio books?” Nico asked.

They talked and talked as if it was the most natural thing ever. Percy laughed when he learned that Nico didn’t have to go to college because he had a zombie butler who was also his tutor. Percy wondered how the zombie could speak and Nico explained to him that he had to self-study much more than listening to lectures. The occasional laughter helped filling the redundant gaps of silence and there was not any order to their subjects. Percy loved it when Nico asked him to explain how “fandoms” worked and recommend some books so he could read in his free time.

“So what did you mean by saying that your night life is not interesting?” Percy asked after having a good laugh at how Nico grimaced at the thought of the not-my-type thing being an Internet meme. Probably because he had said that to Percy once.

“Rather than spending time for hobbies like you do, I waste my time doing nothing in particular.”

“Well, that sounds boring.” Percy commented and Nico rolled his eyes before holding his hands up in defeat. 

“True. I have to admit. Missing someone is draining.”

“I’m guessing Will?” Percy’s heart accelerated with the glimpse of hope that the person was him.

“Nah, you know we’re friends now.”

“So this person must be so special that you spend nights thinking of him?” Percy said teasingly in order to squash his hope dead himself. The son of Poseidon should not allow himself to think that way anymore.

“He’s a dork. An adorable one.” Nico smiled, eyes glinting. “Kinda oblivious.”

Percy felt like kicking himself. He then wondered why because Nico falling for oblivious people was so not his business. 

“He just can’t understand that I didn’t think much of his mistakes and hiding is so not the way.”

Percy Jackson knew that he had a record for acting impulsively. He was both annoyed and proud about that as the results were not always terrible. That was because the son of Poseidon always took a second to imagine what he would do if it ended up devastating. This time, he didn’t.

Nico yelped in surprise as Percy grabbed his face and pulled him in for a desperate kiss. The green-eyed was too overwhelmed with the feelings he felt, the hope that just couldn’t wait to escape him that he forgot his nervousness and went for it. 

He couldn’t pay attention to anything around them, completely drowned in kissing. It was stupid, so stupid, and for a second he had thought about running away to a foreign country to hide for the rest of his life since he failed to keep the self-promise and his selfishness was uncontrollable.

Percy had no idea if the kiss was a good one, at least the only good thing that the obsidian-eyed had to remember about him but he felt the son of Hades kissing back in that most vulnerable moment.

Hands squeezing his shoulders slowly slid down to his chest and before Percy knew what was going on, he was pushed away. Instead of clutching at his cracking heart, the son of the sea suffered an unexpected headache right on the spot. The emptiness he felt in his ribcage is a bonus. Nico breathed out shakily with his eyes shut tight and flopped down on the ground, hands covering his blood-drained face. His head was pounding and Percy felt like vomiting right in front of Nico because he was very, very wrong. Percy couldn’t stand not seeing Nico ever again, not after everything went back to normal. Realization dawned on him that he didn’t think of how Nico felt again, but rather what he felt.

“I’m sorry.” Percy said, he felt the tears but they would not show. He had no right to cry or anything.

Nico stood up, facing him with an unreadable expression. The son of Hades leaned in closer and closer so Percy shut his eyes close, waiting for the punch he deserved.

“Are you even sure of what you feel for me?” was whispered into his ears.

“What?” Percy croaked, his voice so unfamiliar. 

“I want to be certain, Percy,” Nico said, dark eyes so close to his green ones. “I don’t want to misplace my feelings again.”

“So you have a thing for me, too?”

“Yes.” Nico said with a firm voice. “That is confirmed.”

The son of Poseidon reluctantly leaned in, expecting Nico to move out of the way.

Although he had braced himself, it actually hurt more when Nico did that. 

“No, Percy. I want you to be sure if you do feel anything for me.” Nico said, this time his voice came out weak. “That was why I couldn’t…” he looked away.

“You’re right, I’m not sure.” The boy tore his gaze away from Nico’s face. “I don’t want to disappoint you again.”

They sat down next to each other in the ponderous silence which Percy had to admit, was killing him. Nico didn’t give him a particular answer; therefore, he had no idea what to do next.Percy counted and recounted every time he missed a number. 1, 2, 3, 5…

“Percy, I’ll wait for you.” Nico suddenly turned to face him and his hands clasped over Percy’s. The skull ring rubbed at his skin to remind him that this night was real. “I’ll wait for you to figure out your feelings. Tell me when you are no longer in doubt of… us. You will always find me here, waiting.”

“You will?” Percy asked, happiness slowly inundated his whole body.

“I’ll wait for you no matter how long you take.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year, guys.


End file.
